Driving the Day

TRUMP’S NYE MESSAGE — @realDonaldTrump at 8:17 this morning: “Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!”

Good Saturday morning, and Happy New Year’s Eve! We know there are lots of readers looking forward to 2016 being over. And also plenty who are excited for what’s to come in 2017. Either way, we want to thank you for reading and welcoming us so warmly into the Playbook community. Congress comes back in just a few days. Inauguration is three weeks from now. And our resolution is to make Playbook even more indispensable every single day in 2017.

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Now, onto the news.

A MESSAGE FOR THE PRESIDENT ELECT — WE CALLED a bunch of top Capitol Hill figures on Friday to gauge what Donald Trump’s praise for Vladimir Putin means in real terms. And, almost to a person, they said that if Trump throws his arms around Putin and tries to roll back what Obama has done to Russia, it will be tough for the Hill to swallow. That’s a pretty clear message to Trump that he is in for embarrassment if he changes U.S. policy to favor Russia and Putin. Congress would likely have a veto-proof majority when it comes to sanctioning Russia. Putin has just a handful of defenders on the Hill. The Hill can hold endless hearings and force Trump’s nominees to answer tough questions about the administration’s policies toward Putin. “The Hill won’t suddenly come to [Trump’s] position,” a top GOP Capitol Hill insider told us. “It may be more muted than it otherwise would have, but people aren’t going to suddenly think Putin is a white-hat guy.”

IT’S NOT OVER… MORE RUSSIA HACKING — “Vermont utility confirms system breached by Russians,” by Cristiano Lima and Eric Geller: “Evidence of Russian hacking has been detected in a Vermont utility system, a company spokesman confirmed Friday night. A representative of Burlington Electric Department said in statement that a Russian campaign linked to recent cyberattacks had breached a single laptop within the utility, though it was not connected to the organization’s electrical grids. ‘We took immediate action to isolate the laptop and alerted federal officials of this finding,’ Mike Kanarick, a spokesman for the utility, said … ‘Our team is working with federal officials to trace this malware and prevent any other attempts to infiltrate utility systems.’” http://politi.co/2isl1EF

THE TRUMP-PUTIN RESET — NYT A1, “Trump Gets an Opening from Russia, but the Path Is Risky,” by David Sanger, Eric Schmitt and Michael Gordon: “President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has pledged to reset relations with Russia, may have been tossed a lifeline by President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday. The Russian leader, skilled at keeping several steps ahead of his adversaries, announced that he would not retaliate against the Obama administration for imposing new sanctions and expelling Russian diplomats from the United States. …

“‘Putin is going out of his way to not take Obama seriously,’ said Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, who spent decades in the C.I.A. tracking Russia while Mr. Putin was rising in the K.G.B. Instead, he said, ‘he is making a good-will gesture, presumably with the hope and expectation that Donald Trump will respond in kind.’ Now the question is whether the mutual admiration pact opens new chapters in a range of areas in which the longtime adversaries are at odds, including Syria, Ukraine, Crimea, the Middle East, the future of NATO and the development of nuclear weapons.

“But moving too far, or too fast, in Moscow’s direction creates enormous risks for Mr. Trump. From Capitol Hill to Europe, people are already worried that Mr. Trump will simply do Mr. Putin’s bidding. Certainly no one is more suspicious of Mr. Putin and his long-range intentions to undermine the West, and American leadership, than the Republican Party establishment. Senator John McCain of Arizona, one of the few left in the Senate who fought on the front lines of the Cold War, plans to hold the first hearing, on Thursday, on Russia’s effort to manipulate the election.” http://nyti.ms/2iobk7P

— GET SMART FAST: “Why Trump Would Be Crazy to Give Putin What He Wants: Trump says it’s time to ‘move on to bigger and better things.’ What could be bigger than hijacking American democracy?” by Evelyn N. Farkas, former Pentagon Russia hand, in POLITICO Magazine: “[S]uch a reset with Russia will likely be short-lived. Given Russian economic realities and its 2018 presidential election, I expect any thaw to last only about a year, when Putin will turn up the anti-American volume to previous levels, and defy Washington on one issue or another. At that point, if Trump lives up to his pro-Russia rhetoric, he will have given Putin much of what he wants—largely gains in geopolitical influence which will be slow to reverse; while America’s reset benefits, mostly less permanent economic and diplomatic gains, will be easy for Moscow to unravel. America will be left standing amidst the rubble of the post World War II world order, while Putin can retreat happy with the damage he has caused.” http://politi.co/2hB8zS4

TOP TWEETS — @realDonaldTrump yesterday at 2:41 p.m. (in a tweet that was retweeted by the Russian embassy in Washington): “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!” … Moscow Times’ @KevinRothrock: “Putin’s spox jokes that they partied for 3 days at the Kremlin after Trump’s victory, then says srsly, ‘It was euphoria after so much BS.’” … CIA alum @nadabakos: “As a CIA officer, if I had a colleague talking like Trump is about Putin, I would think he was turned.”

****** A message from the Stop The HIT Coalition: Starting as early as February 1, 2017, the Health Insurance Tax (HIT) will raise health insurance premiums even higher. That’s right. Unless Congress takes action now, the HIT will soon return—further driving up premiums. There’s no time to lose. Congress must Stop the HIT. Once and for all. ******

STEVE BANNON SPEAKS — “‘Hobbits and Deplorables Had a Great Run in 2016,’ but It’s Only ‘Top of the First Inning,’” by Breitbart’s John Haywood: “‘We used to tease, after John McCain made that speech that time, that called our audience ‘hobbits,’ it was always great to hear what the hobbits had to say because at the end of the day what they had to say was what mattered most,’ [Steve Bannon] said. Bannon’s message to the hobbits and ‘deplorables’ – to quote Hillary Clinton’s memorable slander of Trump voters – was to keep in mind that it’s only the ‘top of the first inning’ for their movement. ‘You’ve got to stay engaged,’ he advised, pleased to see high levels of engagement in ‘traffic at all the different sites, and the activity you see, the comments sections at the various sites you see, and how great the radio show is doing.’

“‘The Trump administration, I think it’s three weeks from the day exactly is when President Trump will take the oath of office. So let’s hold people accountable and stay engaged. There will be a lot of exciting activity over the next couple of years,’ he promised. ‘Stay engaged. Stay on top of stuff. I think ’17 will be actually more exciting than ’16 was.’” http://bit.ly/2hzmCEw … Full interview with Matt Boylehttp://bit.ly/2iQhkJU

IT’S WORTH NOTING — In the past two days, Breitbart has gotten an exclusive look behind-the-scenes at the presidential inaugural committees activities, and now one of the first interviews with Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist and senior counselor. Clearly, the Trump team sees the utility of working closely with outlets that are sympathetic to their cause.

ALL IN THE FAMILY — “Trump Said to Weigh Aide Conway’s Husband for Top Legal Job,” by Bloomberg’s Ben Bain and Jen Jacobs: “President-elect Donald Trump is considering George Conway, a long-time corporate lawyer and the husband of senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, to be U.S. solicitor general, the government’s top appellate lawyer … Conway, who’s spent more than two decades as a partner at New York corporate legal powerhouse Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, has made a career representing high-profile clients from the National Football League to tobacco maker Philip Morris.” http://bloom.bg/2iiHTGx

— THAT ‘90s SHOW: If Conway’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he played a key role in the Paula Jones affair. Read about it here, with an amazing joint Don Van Natta, Jr./Jill Abramson byline: http://nyti.ms/2iomwRS

— IMAGINE THE OUTCRY if Hillary Clinton appointed a top aide’s spouse to a White House job. Even if they were qualified.

— FLASHBACK: That time George and Kellyanne Conway shared a blog called “Reconcilable Differences” http://bit.ly/2hzzkTH

FOR YOUR RADAR —“Federal agencies rush to fill job openings before Trump takes office Jan. 20,” by WaPo’s Lisa Rein and Juliet Eilperin: “Several federal agencies are accelerating hiring in the final days of the Obama administration to ensure that as many new employees as possible are in place before President-elect Donald Trump imposes a promised hiring freeze. … The agencies rushing to bring on new employees include not just Fish and Wildlife but the [TSA], the National Park Service, [NOAA], the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and parts of the Agriculture and Labor departments. … From positions as high as senior executives down to entry-level biologists, nervous agencies are advertising jobs for periods of as little as five to six days so that they can bring employees aboard by mid-January. The span of six months to a year that it usually takes to hire candidates into full-time positions has been compressed since the election, often to two or three weeks.” http://wapo.st/2iiFCuO

HILLWATCH — “Senate moves to condemn U.N. over Israel,” by Burgess Everett with John Bresnahan and Rachael Bade: “Congressional Republicans are moving swiftly to denounce the United Nations’ recent action toward Israel, with GOP lawmakers in both chambers preparing to introduce disapproval resolutions aimed at the United Nations as soon as the new Congress convenes. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), will introduce a ‘sense of the Senate’ resolution next week disapproving of the U.N. Security Council’s condemnation of Israeli settlement-building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank … The resolution is intended to be a companion to the House’s expected action against the U.N. and could place both chambers at odds with the international body as Congress returns next month.” http://politi.co/2hWjUJW

— “Obama lines up a meeting with lawmakers, a speech in Chicago,” by AP’s Josh Lederman in Honolulu: “Eager to stop Republicans from destroying his signature health-care law, President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers will meet next week to try to forge a common strategy. Obama also plans a major valedictory speech in Chicago, his hometown, shortly before his presidency ends. Obama will travel to the Capitol on Wednesday morning for the meeting with House and Senate Democrats, according to an invitation sent to lawmakers. … Obama’s speech in Chicago on Jan. 10 is expected to serve as his closing words to the nation as president. His appearance will be open to the public and followed by a ‘family reunion’ for alumni of Obama’s former campaigns.” http://apne.ws/2hD4j4k

WHAT TRUMP IS DOING FOR NEW YEARS — “Mar-a-Lago sold tickets to New Year’s Eve party with Trump,” by Madeline Conway and Ken Vogel: “Mar-a-Lago, the pricey private resort in Palm Beach, Florida, sold hundreds of tickets to an annual New Year’s Eve extravaganza planned for Saturday night that will feature a very special guest: the president-elect of the United States of America and his family. President-elect Donald Trump owns the members-only luxury resort, which each year sells tickets to swank parties it throws on holidays and special occasions, including New Year’s Eve, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“Saturday’s formal event is scheduled to include a cocktail hour in the resort’s living room and patio area, followed by dinner and dancing until 1 a.m. in its grand ballroom to live music performed by the band Party on the Moon, according to Sean Spicer, Trump’s incoming White House press secretary. Spicer … said the party is already ‘sold out’ with more than 800 people scheduled to attend, including actor Sylvester Stallone and music producer Quincy Jones, in addition to Trump, his wife, incoming First Lady Melania Trump, and their son Barron Trump.” http://politi.co/2hznVmH

TV TONIGHT — Michelle Obama will address the revelers in Times Square via a pre-taped video message, offering her wishes for the New Year and discussing the Let Girls Learn initiative as part of the Times Square “New Year’s Eve Live, Commercial-Free Webcast and TV Pool Feed.” Gavin DeGraw and Rachel Platten will headline the musical lineup for the webcast. http://bit.ly/2hDhlAv

— NEWS YOU CAN USE – “8 P.M.? Time for Children to Ring in the New Year With Fake Countdowns,” by NYT’s Christopher Mele: “For a third year, Netflix, the video streaming company, is hosting ‘Netflix New Year’s Eve Countdowns,’ 10 short videos featuring popular actors and cartoon characters who, at the click of a button, will count down the minutes to the new year, regardless of what time it truly is. (Of course, the countdowns work only if the little revelers cannot tell time.) … The company said its data showed the peak viewing hour of the countdowns leading to 2016 was 8 p.m. local time in the United States.” http://nyti.ms/2iiCIX5

GLENN THRUSH’s final “Off Message” podcast before he joins The Times, “What Chuck Todd gets about Trump”: “Chuck Todd has interviewed Donald Trump many times, and he’s noticed something somewhat disquieting about the unquiet president-elect. The man doesn’t laugh — not in a normal, spontaneous, regular-human kind of way. ‘[It] drives me crazy. Do you know what? I’ve never seen him laugh,’ the ‘Meet the Press’ host told me during an interview … earlier this month. ‘I challenge somebody to find him laughing, and that person has yet to find an example, in my opinion. … He doesn’t really laugh. He looks for others to laugh. It is just weird.’ And there’s one other thing that Todd thinks is odd: After several of his Sunday appearances as a candidate, Trump would lean back in his chair and request that the control room replay his appearance on a monitor — sans sound.” http://politi.co/2hB45KW

BEYOND THE BELTWAY — “Judge puts NC GOP elections board makeover on hold after Roy Cooper sues,” by the Charlotte Observer’s Anne Blythe and Colin Campbell: “Governor-elect Roy Cooper filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the General Assembly’s special session law that revamps the state elections board. The lawsuit was the second filed in the waning days of Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration that challenge changes that were adopted by the General Assembly in a special session in December and signed into law by the Republican governor.” http://bit.ly/2iQmRQs

BACKSTORY — “U.S. Ethics Chief Was Behind Those Tweets About Trump, Records Show,” by NPR’s Alina Selyukh: “In November, the typically straitlaced Office of Government Ethics surprised observers with a series of tweets mimicking Donald Trump’s bombastic style, exclamation points and all: ‘Brilliant! Divestiture is good for you, good for America!’ … New records shared with NPR on Friday show that behind the curious tweets was the head of the OGE himself, Director Walter Shaub Jr. In two emails, dated Nov. 30, just several minutes apart, Shaub sent to OGE Chief of Staff Shelley Finlayson the nine tweets that took the Internet by storm that day. He then followed up with a link to a legal document referenced in one of the tweets and writes: ‘Get all of these tweets posted as soon as humanly possible.’” http://n.pr/2iAf8CW

****** A message from the Stop The HIT Coalition: Starting as early as February 1, 2017, small businesses, seniors and hardworking families will start feeling the Health Insurance Tax (HIT) once again. That’s right. Unless Congress takes action now, the HIT will return — further driving up premiums for small businesses, seniors and hard-working families. There’s no time to lose. Congress must Stop the HIT. Once and for all. ******

MEDIAWATCH – WALTER ISAACSON in the WaPo, “Becoming Michael Lewis”: “‘The Undoing Project,’ Michael’s new bestseller, explores the childhoods of Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky to provide insights into their work. They came of age as tough outsiders and fighters during the Holocaust and the birth of Israel. Michael’s upbringing was the opposite: He was the charmed and charming child of New Orleans gentry, and he never encountered a club or court that didn’t want to have him as a prince.” http://wapo.st/2hUORhP … $17.37 on Amazonhttp://amzn.to/2g80bY0

— “Turkish Authorities Detain Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter Dion Nissenbaum for 2½ Days,” by WSJ’s Gordon Fairclough: “Nissenbaum, 49 years old, left Turkey to return to the U.S. on Saturday. … [H]e was held for allegedly violating a government ban on publication of images from an Islamic State video. … Mr. Nissenbaum’s detention came amid a broader crackdown on press freedom in Turkey, where dozens of reporters, mainly Turkish, are behind bars. Since the summer, Turkey, where the government has imposed a state of emergency, has closed more than 100 domestic media outlets.”http://on.wsj.com/2iQux5m

CLICKER – “2016: The nation’s cartoonists on the year in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker – 41 keepershttp://politi.co/2iNuJ1g

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from New Orleans:

–“A Photographic Chronicle of America’s Working Poor,” by Dale Maharidge with photos by Matt Black in the December issue of Smithsonian: “Smithsonian journeyed from Maine to California to update a landmark study of American life.” http://bit.ly/2ikAHHX

–“World War Three,” by Mistake,” by Eric Schlosser in The New Yorker: “Harsh political rhetoric, combined with the vulnerability of the nuclear command-and-control system, has made the risk of global catastrophe greater than ever.” http://bit.ly/2hBdaDT

–“16 Things You Didn’t Know About Avocados: Bet you can’t name the three races of avocados!” by Joanna Sciarrino in Lucky Peach: “[A]ncient Central and South Americans were eating them twenty-five hundred years ago; Europeans discovered their buttery appeal in the sixteenth century; Americans started growing them commercially in the 1900s. There are more than one thousand varieties (such as Zutano, Choquette, and Bacon, to name just a few) cultivated around the world from Mexico to New Zealand to Israel.” http://bit.ly/2imomTx (h/t TheBrowser.com)

–“Stuck,” by Michael Paterniti in the Sept. 2003 issue of GQ: “He is a man without a country, a family and a home. For more than a decade, Merhan Nasseri has been living in terminal one at Charles de Gaulle airport, waiting. For what, he doesn’t know anymore.” http://bit.ly/2hKL2LP

–“Bach’s Holy Dread,” by The New Yorker’s Alex Ross: “The composer has long been seen as a symbol of divine order. But his music has an unruly obsession with God.” http://bit.ly/2i44fve

–“Low Definition in Higher Education,” by Lyell Asher in The American Scholar: “When college students are told what to think and what not to say, who suffers in the end?” http://bit.ly/2i49mLV

–“The World v. Alan Dershowitz,” by Simon van Zuylen-Wood in the Dec. issue of Boston Magazine: “The Harvard Law School legend has defended everyone from O.J. Simpson to Claus von Bülow. Now he’s facing his toughest case yet: his own.” http://bit.ly/2i3Yfm5

–“The Glory of the Rails,” by Tony Judt in the Dec. 23, 2010 issue of the N.Y. Review of Books: “The world before the railways appeared so very different from what came afterward and from what we know today because the railways did more than just facilitate travel and thereby change the way the world was seen and depicted. They transformed the very landscape itself.” http://bit.ly/2iaDl4P… Part 2http://bit.ly/2hvvSfW (h/t Longform.org)

–“Disgust made us human,” by Kathleen McAuliffe in Aeon Magazine: “Our ancestors reacted to parasites with overwhelming revulsion, wiring the brain for morals, manners, politics and laws.” http://bit.ly/2iHGBlj (h/t ALDaily.com)

–“F*** work,” by James Livingston in Aeon Magazine: “Economists believe in full employment. Americans think that work builds character. But what if jobs aren’t working anymore?” http://bit.ly/2hyvm2y (h/t Longreads.com)

–“Rewriting the Code of Life,” by The New Yorker’s Michael Specter: “Through DNA editing, researchers hope to alter the genetic destiny of species and eliminate diseases.” http://bit.ly/2iLRhiI

–“How China Built ‘iPhone City’ With Billions in Perks for Apple’s Partner,” by NYT’s David Barboza: “A hidden bounty of benefits for Foxconn’s plant in Zhengzhou, the world’s biggest iPhone factory, is central to the production of Apple’s most profitable product.” http://nyti.ms/2ieZX45

–“Future Shock,” by Abraham Riesman in Vulture: “Director Alfonso Cuarón revisits ‘Children of Men,’ his overlooked 2006 masterpiece, which might be the most relevant film of 2016.” http://bit.ly/2hyBDv7 … Trailerhttp://bit.ly/2iHHhan

–“Lunch with the FT: Jonathan Franzen”: “What is it about the great American novelist that provokes such strong reactions? Lucy Kellaway meets him for mackerel and mullet in London”. http://bit.ly/2hvDoHO

–“Marina Abramović turned attention seeking into a modern art form,” by Julie Burchill in the New Statesman: “Reading Abramović’s memoir is rather like watching EastEnders: I didn’t learn anything about performance art reading, but I can’t deny I had fun.” http://bit.ly/2hyAunm

Playbookers

SPOTTED — Tammy Haddad hosting a “sing-along” for her birthday yesterday at the Maryland Shore. At her party: her children Rachel and David Greenberg, Holly and Paul Fine, Kimberley Fritts and Marion Turner, Meghan Murphy, David Adler, Kathy O’Hearn, and Niki Christoff. Pic of Tammy joined by Jeremy Bash on guitar and Hilary Rosen singing backuphttp://bit.ly/2iQqmXi … Her list of birthday songshttp://bit.ly/2hD42hU … Former Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) in an all white Stanford sweatsuit cheering Cardinal football on yesterday in Adams Morgan.

TRANSITIONS – LILY ADAMS has been hired by Sen.-elect Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) to be her comms director; Adams previously worked as a Clinton campaign spox and for the DNC. (h/t @SarahDWire) … Chris Van Hollen for Senate campaign alumJonathan Levi is joining the senator-elect’s Capitol Hill office as a legislative correspondent.

ENGAGED – Michael Fontneau of tech unicorn Datto based in Boston and alum of the Strategy Group Company, Front Porch Strategies and Chris Shays, got engaged on Christmas to Taylor O’Neil, RN with stints at Johns Hopkins and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who is now at Harvard Vanguard and working on her masters to be a Nurse Practitioner. They met at a brunch in Boston through a mutual friend he met on Nantucket. He proposed in Connecticut at his parents house on Christmas Day in the driveway because he didn’t want to wait to even get into the house. Pichttp://bit.ly/2iOkUUF

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Dr. Byron Hulsey, headmaster at Woodberry Forest School and author of “Everett Dirksen and His Presidents: How a Senate Giant Shaped American Politics” (hat tip: Stewart Verdery, a Woodberry alum and on the board down there)

****** A message from the Stop The HIT Coalition: Starting as early as February 1, 2017, small businesses, seniors and hardworking families will start feeling the Health Insurance Tax (HIT) once again. That’s right. Unless Congress takes action now, the HIT will return — further driving up premiums for small businesses, seniors and hard-working families. There’s no time to lose. Congress must Stop the HIT. Once and for all. ******

The host of TYT Network's nationally-syndicated Bill Press Show (Monday-Friday from 7-9am ET), Press attends the daily White House press briefing and writes a weekly column for the powerhouse politics website The Hill.